Josue Raul Orozco, who escaped from San Mateo County's juvenile lockup in February 2008. He was arrested Sept. 17, 2008, in San Antonio, Texas. He is shown here in a booking shot from Texas.

Josue Raul Orozco, who escaped from San Mateo County's juvenile lockup in February 2008. He was arrested Sept. 17, 2008, in San Antonio, Texas. He is shown here in a booking shot from Texas.

Photo: Courtesy, San Mateo County Sheriff Office

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Josue Raul Orozco, a 17-year-old murder suspect who escaped from a San Mateo County juvenile facility Thursday evening by scaling a cement wall and cutting through a chain-link fence, probation authorities said on Friday, Feb. 15, 2008.Courtesy of San Mateo Probation Department less

Josue Raul Orozco, a 17-year-old murder suspect who escaped from a San Mateo County juvenile facility Thursday evening by scaling a cement wall and cutting through a chain-link fence, probation authorities said ... more

Photo: Courtesy San Mateo Probation, SFC

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Escaped teen murder suspect arrested in Texas

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A teenage murder suspect who escaped from the San Mateo County juvenile lockup earlier this year has been arrested in Texas, authorities said Thursday.

Josue Raul Orozco, the youngest person ever charged as an adult with murder in the county, was arrested about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday in San Antonio, authorities said. He had been using the alias Jesus Contreras, said Lt. Ray Lunny of the San Mateo County sheriff's office.

It was not immediately known what Orozco had been doing for the past seven months, and Lunny would not say how investigators hunting for Orozco had come to focus on San Antonio.

Orozco was 17 when he escaped from Youth Services Center in the hills above San Mateo on Feb. 14. He has since turned 18.

His escape - the first from a San Mateo County juvenile lockup in 16 years - prompted the Board of Supervisors to commission an investigation into security measures at the $150 million juvenile facility, which was billed as state-of-the-art when it opened in September 2006. It is run by the county Probation Department.

The investigation found a litany of problems, including poorly trained staff, ineffective security cameras and a confused response to the escape.

Two wards who had been playing basketball with Orozco boosted him up a halogen light support in a recreation courtyard, authorities said. From there, he climbed over a 15-foot wall, dropped down the other side and slipped through a chain link fence that had been cut, authorities said.

The light support was only 12 feet off the ground, rather than the intended 15 feet, authorities said. The support has since been relocated.

At least one staffer responsible for monitoring security cameras didn't know how to use the zoom function, the report to the Board of Supervisors found. Some of the cameras weren't working, and no camera had a view of the spot where Orozco climbed over the wall.

No staffers were supervising Orozco and the other youths in the recreation courtyard, the report said. One of the two assigned to his unit was taking a food break when the escape happened, and the other was playing chess, the investigation found.

Orozco, who officials say is a Sureño gang member, was arrested at age 14 in connection with a July 2005 shooting that killed 21-year-old Francisco Rodriguez outside his Redwood City home. Police said Rodriguez was a member of a rival gang.

One of the wards who helped Orozco flee, Vanher Cho, 18, was sentenced in June to a year in jail and five years' probation for his part in the escape. He told investigators he had helped Orozco because he feared that gang members or other inmates would retaliate if he didn't, according to his probation report.